Assessment of Health Service Restoration in War Affected Areas of Amhara Regional State, Northern Ethiopia, 2022
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Date
2022-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The objective of this study was to describe the health service restoration status of war affected public health institutions in Amhara regional state in terms of service availability, readiness and utilization. Mixed method was employed to this cross sectional descriptive study. Primary data were collected from 35 of 40 war affected public hospitals with structured questionnaire since May to June 2022, and secondary data extracted from electronics health reporting system and document review. Microsoft Excel was used to do descriptive analysis. Regarding to result, the current study findings show that 0.03 hospital, 2.1 inpatient beds and 0.5 physician per 10,000 populations and the project achieved only 60% general service availability. The mean availability of 17 selected specific services was 70% in total affected hospitals. General service readiness index and mean service specific readiness index were 69% and 75% respectively which implies that those hospitals started to offer services were ready to provide general health services with the capacity of 24 hospitals and specific health services with the capacity of 26 hospitals, instead of 35. Regarding to service utilization, outpatient attendance per person per year was 1.26 and achieved only 25% of global benchmark while the inpatient admission rate was 86 per 10,000 populations in war affected community which means clients get access inpatient services only 64% and 8.6% of national average and global standard respectively.
Based on the findings of the study the investigator concludes that most of indicators in health service availability, readiness and utilization are below national benchmarks and the overall health service restoration status was 64 percent. The researcher suggests for government to avail power sources; International NGOs to offer humanitarian services in those inaccessible health facilities and communities due to active war; the ministry of health and regional health bureau to facilitate and mobilize fund to avail diagnostic and surgical service equipment, and to develop health professionals recruit and retention mechanism; and researchers for future studies to focus on community based survey, primary health care unit assessment and service-specific utilization.
Key Words: Service Availability, Service Readiness, Service Utilization, War Affected Area